Command & Conquer (1995) soundtrack

Contents

Background

The soundtrack to Command & Conquer was the first video game produced by Westwood to feature streaming music as opposed to the MIDI format.[1] The 22k mono tracks where produced using an ASR-10 sampler, a Roland S760 sampler and a Roland JD-990 synth module.[1] Klepacki has credited influences from dozens of artists including Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails in the production of the soundtrack.[1] Klepacki stated he wrote the songs in "batches", each with different themes. Songs such as Prepare for Battle where written in an orchestral style while others such as C&C Thang touched on Hip Hop or metal in Deception.[1] Certain songs such as Hold on, a chilling art piece in the style of Laurie Anderson, were cut from the game because they did not fit the style Klepacki was aiming for in the overall soundtrack.[1]

With the release of the Covert Operations expansion pack Klepacki composed many of the ambient songs having been asked to do so by Westwood for the game.[1]

The track "No Mercy" as well as "Deception" feature voice samples of the character Chuck De Nomolos from the film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. "In Trouble" contains voice samples of Maverick from Top Gun and the track "I Remember Now" from the Queensrÿche album Operation: Mindcrime.

Soundtrack release

The Music of Command & Conquer is a soundtrack album containing musical tracks from the video game Command & Conquer, composed by Frank Klepacki and produced by Westwood. It was originally released in 1995. The soundtrack spans two discs and 22 tracks with combined duration of approximately 72 minutes. The soundtrack was bundled with some of the game's collector's editions, which feature tracks from both the original Command & Conquer and the expansion. Though it was never released through retail, Westwood Studios sold this official soundtrack by special order through its website and in game catalogues.[2] The album was packaged with a simple brushed aluminium design and featuring the official Command & Conquer logo.
With the release of the album many of the tracks were thought to have been updated to include vocals which could previously only be heard on the PlayStation version of the game. However, these were actually the original versions of the songs.[3][1] Because of the vocal tracks conflicting with the voice sound effects in the game they were removed for the in game soundtrack.[1]

The original soundtrack can be listened to on the web site of composer Frank Klepacki, along with various cues that were cut from the game, most of which are also present on the discs of the DOS version and the expansion pack.

Note that some track titles differ from the in-game versions.[3] In these cases, the in-game track title is mentioned behind the original title. Also, some track titles differ from the versions on Frank Klepacki's website. In these cases, the website's track titles are mentioned behind the original in-game track title. The first seven in-game tracks are only available with the "The Covert Operations" expansion pack.